Putin suggests toughening of sanctions against illegal migration

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin addressed on Thursday the collegium of the Federal Migration Service and came up with a number of initiatives on the migration policy

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MOSCOW, January 27 (Itar-Tass) —— Prime Minister Vladimir Putin addressed on Thursday the collegium of the Federal Migration Service and came up with a number of initiatives on the migration policy. He suggested the closing of the entry to Russia for five to ten years for the foreigners, who were deported from this country for illegal work. Besides, he suggested criminal responsibility for owners of underground hostels for migrants.

The Rossiiskaya Gazeta quotes Putin as saying that some 9.2 million foreigners are staying in Russia. Some four million of them got registered as migrants, but are working illegally. Russia is not going to close its borders, but it will improve the quality of its migration policy. “The national economy is growing, and we cannot do without inviting manpower from abroad, but we shall keep in mind the interests of our own nationals and the stability of Russian society,” Putin promised.

Putin suggested the following: he promised to close the entry to Russian for five, ten years or even more for those, who were deported from the country before, for instance, for illegal work, The Kommersant writes. The organizers of illegal migration, who use gastarbeiters as “slaves without any rights”, were also promised the toughening of sanctions. At present the organizers of illegal entry, transit and stay of foreigners in Russia may be sentenced to two years of imprisonment, and if the crime was committed by a group of people – to a five-year prison term. Konstantin Romodanovsky, head of the Federal Migration Service, said, however, that 92 per cent of court rulings on that article of the Penal Code in the first half of 2011 were fines to various sums.

Putin again suggested a mandatory exam in Russian for labor migrants, irrespective of their profession, The Moskovsky Komsomolets writes. Putin said that centers for pre-migration training could be created, where would-be migrants could be given classes of Russian and of some professional training, where they could learn more about the most important Russian laws, cultural standards and traditions. Putin believes it is important to prevent the creation of “closed ethnic enclaves.” Besides, he said it was necessary to put an end to the practices of “rubber flats,” which are mentioned as a place of residence in forged registration documents.

Before the beginning of the meeting, Romodanovsky showed to Putin an interactive map, which gives all information about the situation with migrants in any Russian region in the real-time regime, The Komsomolskaya Pravda writes. The map gives information, among other things, about the number of migrants in the risk group, i.e. those who came to Russia, but were not given permission for work. The greatest number of such migrants comes from Uzbekistan (27 per cent of the total number) and from Ukraine (21 per cent). Romodanovsky called the attention of the Prime Minister to the Izmailovo hotel complex in Moscow, where, according to the information of the Federal Migration Service, 15,500 Chinese nationals are accommodated.